The genus was introduced by the German naturalist
Johann Baptist von Spix in 1824. The
type species was subsequently designated as the
golden-green woodpecker (
Piculus chrysochloros) by the American ornithologist
Harry C. Oberholser in 1923. The generic name is a diminutive of the Latin word
Picus meaning "woodpecker". The genus forms part of the woodpecker
subfamily Picinae and has a
sister relationship to the genus
Dryocopus whose species are found in Eurasia and the Americas. The genus
Piculus is a member of the
tribe Picini and belongs to a
clade that contains five genera:
Colaptes,
Piculus,
Mulleripicus,
Dryocopus and
Celeus. The genus contains seven species: Five other species, formerly placed here, are now in
Colaptes. ==References==